Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	life_n	power_n	soul_n	8,115	5	4.8720	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45469	To the right honourable, the Lord Fairfax, and his councell of warre the humble addresse of Henry Hammond.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1649 (1649)	Wing H606; ESTC R200396	14,448	20

heathen Rulers or Masters is oft prescribed as a speciall meanes to advance Christs maine end to magnifie and promote the Gospel But for power over a mans owne life no man can be believed to be borne with it for if he were he might then as lawfully kill himselfe and if he might doe it lawfully there are many cases which might make it prudent for him to do it at some times as pul out an aking tooth or dispose of his liberty or estate out of his owne possession a thing which no Christian hath ever thought lawfull but made this felonia de se this self-murther or felony against ones selfe a crime as contrary to the sixt Commandement as the killing of any other man Having proceeded thus farre I shall now take that for granted which that I know of is denied by none I am sure which is not denied in the publisht scheme of the designed Representative viz. that the supreme power includes the power of life I meane not such an arbitrary power of killing whom they please without sinne but a power of putting capitall Malefactors to death and so a power over every call it Subjects or Free-mans life in case of capitall crime And the granting of this as 't is too visible that it is by you a granted truth being added to the former doth to me irrefragably conclude that the supreme power neither is nor can be in the community of the People or in their Representative by force meerly of their originall or naturall liberty The inference is cleare because the power of life which is part of the Supremacy is not part of that naturall liberty and therefore is neither inherent naturally in that community of men which is but in other words so many particular men together indow'd with that power and no more which every man hath singly over himself nor consequently by them communicable to any Representative And by this also it appeares that supreme Magistracy wheresoever 't is truly placed is the ordinance and creation of God who alone hath power of all mens lives and not of man who hath no power of his owne much lesse of any others life any farther then he is a Representative or Proxy or Deputy of God who hath that Power not of the People who have it not For it is possible I may put you in mind of an evident truth which perhaps you have not taken notice of That as the originall of Government in any particular place cannot be imagined to be by any more than two waies Either Gods designment or the Peoples act so in either of those two cases 't is God onely and not the People that gives the power of the Sword or power of Life to the Governour when God himselfe sets a King over men 't is so cleare that be thus impowers that King that that need not be proved and when the community of a People suppose in the Originall ten men in the freedome of nature chuse one of themselves or more to rule over them 't is cleare they doe not invest him with more power than themselves had that he that was thus chosen by them hath the power of life over any of them which they single or all together in the community had not must needs come from some other and not from them and if you will know from whom it comes I answer that it comes from Gods appointment for the oeconomy of the world that the supreme Magistrate shall as his Deputy have this power from God communicated to him as an endowment necessary to that power which is design'd to protect and governe others And in case it were the act of the People and not of God immediately that designes or nominates the Person to that Office yet doth not this nomination bestow this power but God who alone hath that power bestowes it on him who is thus nominated In this case all that the People bestow or part with by their act is their owne liberty or that part of it of which they voluntarily divest themselves that they may by obedience empower him whom they have set over them that they may reasonably part with for that greater benefit of protection from him which while he is obeyed by all he may by their united obedience to his commands be able to afford them and could not probably without it now this giving up their liberties to one or more makes that man or men a Ruler over them and being a Ruler to him belongs derived from God not from them that power of life and death which Gods forementioned decree hath enstated on the supreme power or Ruler who is therefore in that relation of Avenger for wrath or punishment stiled by the Apostle the Minister of God Rom. 13. and not of the People By this it appeares that for the originall of power the utmost that comes from the People is that of which they have the power till by some act of Gods or their owne they have parted with it the liberty or power of their Persons or in some sort and degree as they shall part with it of their bodies or possessions in like manner but not of their lives For that other is of an higher origination and therefore supposing the power they had parted with should upon any emergent revert to them againe yet the power of life and death or of the Sword can never revert because it never proceeded from them but as the soule that came from God doth at the falling of the body back to its elements or earth from which it was first taken returne to the hands of God that gave it so the power of life the prerogative first and then the gift or investitute of God must at the dlssolution of any Government and the supposed posed reverting to its principles againe returne to its proper fountaine to God and none but him And to imagine it to divolve to the community of the people is the same unreasonable as to conceive the immortall soule that one beame of divinity as this power of life and death is another to accompany the carcasse to the grave also I have insisted the longer on this to make the mistake the more palpable and the more impossible not to be discerned by you and if I could foresee any colour of reason that could possibly pretend against this evidence I should yet enlarge yours and my owne trouble to discover it but being I professe unable to mention any thing which the grounds which are already laid have not prevented I shall now proceed to the third and last way of examining this truth By the history of times and there I shall be forced to retract at least to suspend the acknowledging of that which that I might examine it by reason I was willing to suppose but not grant and shall now demand 1. Whether by any authentick story it appeares that there ever were any Nation or People in the world who can be presumed